The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Recent years have witnessed significant developments in the manner in which consumers watch TV. Broadband residential Internet connections provide support for limited implementations of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). The advent of smart phones and tablet computers with high resolution screens and both WiFi and cellular connections provides an opportunity for consumers to watch content almost anywhere and anytime. Adaptive bit-rate streaming technologies have been developed to help consumers deal with varying network conditions with fewer interruptions to their viewing experience.
Dozens of companies, including established broadcasters and distributors, new start-ups and even content producers, have tried to exploit these trends by providing various kinds of IP-based TV services to all kinds of end user devices (Set-top boxes, PCs, smartphones, tablets and game consoles). These services may include, for example, downloading of content and/or streaming of live channel content and Video on Demand (watching pre-recorded movies or TV programs).
However, the performance of these IP-based services diminishes for residential customers where more than a few devices at a time are streaming or downloading content. Providing these services to a campus environment, such as a University with thousands of students, faculty members and administrative staff is an even bigger challenge. With potentially thousands of simultaneous users (e.g. during prime time, or during an important sports event), the campus network could become clogged. While universities typically have high bandwidth connections to the Internet, those connections still would not be able to accommodate hundreds (let alone thousands) of simultaneous, high-quality video streams.
Broadcasters and distributors provide some television services to multi-dwelling environments such as hotels, but the customers at those premises are not able to access the content on their own devices and using wireless connections. So the campus environment, where potentially thousands of users would simultaneously access high quality video on any personal device, presents a new challenge which has not yet been adequately met.